Dad’s Role in Future
Generations, ad infinitum:
Most
are aware of the implications
of how a mother’s diet and lifestyle factors affect baby, but mom’s genes make up only
half of the equation. The best way to ensure a healthy child is starting at
conception. The following highlights how a dad can contribute to strong,
healthy, genetic expression of his new bundle of joy. This will not only impact
his little one, but his grandchild!
An
article in NY Times recently discussed these powerful epigenetic modulating
effects of diet and lifestyle:
Doctors have been telling men for years that smoking, drinking and
recreational drugs can lower the quality of their sperm. What doctors should
probably add is that the health of unborn children can be affected by what and
how much men eat; the toxins they absorb; the traumas they endure; their
poverty or powerlessness; and their age at the time of conception. In other words, what a man needs to know is
that his life experience leaves biological traces on his children. Even more
astonishingly, those children may pass those traces along to their children.
….
When it comes to the
epigenetics of aging, however, there is little question that the chemical
insults and social setbacks of everyday life distill themselves in sperm. A woman is born with all the
eggs she’ll ever carry. By the time a man turns 40, on the other hand, his
gonad cells will have divided 610 times to make spermatozoa. By the time he’s
in his 50s that number goes up to 840. Each time those cells copy themselves,
mistakes may appear in the DNA chain. Some researchers now think that a
percentage of those mistakes reflects not just random mutations but
experience-based epigenetic markings that insinuate themselves from sperm to
fetus and influence brain development. Another theory holds that aging gonad
cells are more error-prone because the parts of the DNA that should have
spotted and repaired any mistakes have been epigenetically tamped down. In any
case, we now know that the children of older fathers show more signs of schizophrenia, autism and bipolar disorder than children of younger ones.
Therefore,
the healthier at birth and more healthy habits carried throughout life, creates
a healthier planet of all parents to come.
Source:
Judith Shulevitz. Why Fathers Really Matter. NY Times. Accessed 9/10/12. http://www.nytimes.com/2012/09/09/opinion/sunday/why-fathers-really-matter.html?_r=1&pagewanted=all
Antioxidants for the old
So, a
healthy mom and dad make for a healthy baby and this makes for a healthy world.
What about if one is already past the curve of youth and feels that the life of
indiscretions may lead to issues later in life? There’s still hope!
Food
and individualized Nutrition to the rescue!
One
study demonstrated the power of resveratrol (a potent antioxidant found in red
wine, peanuts, red grapes, and blueberries) to help improve mobility and
prevent falls in older adults:
In a stride toward better
health in later life, scientists reported today that resveratrol, the so-called “miracle molecule” found in red wine, might
help improve mobility and prevent life-threatening falls among older people.
The finding, believed to be the first of its kind, was presented today to some
14,000 scientists and others gathered at the 244th National Meeting
& Exposition of the American Chemical Society, the world’s largest
scientific society.
The researchers say this report
– based on studies of laboratory mice – could lead to the development of
natural products designed to help older Americans live safer and more
productive lives.
News-Medical.net.
Resveratrol might help improve mobility and prevent life-threatening falls
among older people. August 20, 2012. http://www.news-medical.net/news/20120820/Resveratrol-might-help-improve-mobility-and-prevent-life-threatening-falls-among-older-people.aspx
A little side note about
polyphenol antioxidants in wine…..
Red
wine has positive effects on blood sugar more so than alcohol alone, so it’s
not about the alcohol folks, but the antioxidant boost of its contents.
These results support a beneficial effect of the non-alcoholic
fraction of red wine (mainly polyphenols) on insulin resistance, conferring
greater protective effects on cardiovascular disease to red wine than other
alcoholic beverages.
Source:
Chiva-Blanch G et al. Effects of red wine polyphenols and alcohol on glucose
metabolism and the lipid profile: A randomized clinical trial. Clinical
Nutrition – 05 September 2012. doi: 10.1016/j.clnu.2012.08.022
Healthy Little Cells by Healthy
Habits
Want to
combat the aging process from the inside-out…for your specific needs? You can!
Dr. Rachel Marynowski discusses how to customize an inside healthy environment
through individualized functional medicine:
When it comes to aging — a phenomenon none of us can escape — there
are, indeed, ways to do so more gracefully. And it all begins with working from
the inside-out, starting with our cells. After all, cells make up tissues,
tissues make up organs, organs make up systems, and systems make up YOU!…
We hear a lot about antioxidants to combat free radicals, which play
into the oxidative stress conversation. Without delving too deeply into AMP/ATP
ratios, the reduction of oxygen into superoxides, the balance between anabolic
and catabolic processes, cellular membrane status, and so on and so forth…it
really boils down to one thing: the intracellular environment can be a
happenin’ place — both happenin’ in a good way and in a bad way. Unfortunately,
it’s always the latter IF the body:
- lacks ample co-factor
nutrients to carry out necessary processes - bears a burden of toxins
interfering with the inner cellular milieu - suffers from amino-acid
insufficiencies or ‘failure to utilize’ patterns - faces free radicals run
amuck - agonizes with a sluggish
GI tract and pathogenic overgrowth
We have to face the facts — these health
calamities can make a person feel pretty crummy, and it usually shows on the
outside, too. Agreed?
With the Organic
Acids and Amino Acids
profiles, we are afforded the opportunity to look at the individual on a
micro-level of detail. This allows for the customization of an anti-aging
package just for Nancy, which is different from the one just for
Barbara, very different from the just one for Frank. Get the idea?
Source:
Dr. Rachel Marynowski. Put Your Best Face Forward. Metametrix Institute Blogs.
September 4, 2012. http://www.metametrixinstitute.org/post/2012/09/04/Put-Your-Best-Face-Forward.aspx?utm_source=September+2012%2C+Vol+7%2C+Issue+9&utm_campaign=September+2012+e-newsletter&utm_medium=email
